


Deteriora

by MeltedIceAngel



Category: Code Lyoko, Code Lyoko Evolution
Genre: But He Gets Better, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Head Injury, Headaches & Migraines, High key protective Yumi, Laura comes in at some point, Like, Major Character Injury, Odd-centric, Protective Ulrich and Yumi, Seizures, Temporary Amnesia, William is kinda a dick, no ships
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:08:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27336934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MeltedIceAngel/pseuds/MeltedIceAngel
Summary: What happens when your only fail-safe fails? Jeremie should've known that sending Odd to Lyoko with a concussion was a stupid decision. He should've known it was an even worse idea to do a return before he had fully healed. Now, Odd not only has a bruise the size of Batman Robin's mask on his eyes and nose, but he has what amounts to two concussions on top of it.Then, of course, Xana decides that a break is never in order. When Aelita is the last one left on Lyoko, Jeremie has no choice but to send Odd. One return later, and suddenly Odd is grumbling about going to class and being surprised about the chill in the air as if he hadn't already experienced it."Odd, why are you acting like we haven't done this before?""Because we haven't?"Yeah, Jeremie should've just gone to Lyoko himself.
Relationships: Jeremie Belpois & Odd Della Robbia, Odd Della Robbia & Aelita Schaeffer, Odd Della Robbia & Ulrich Stern, Odd Della Robbia & William Dunbar, Odd Della Robbia & Yumi Ishiyama
Comments: 3
Kudos: 30





	Deteriora

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, hello, 30 something readers of my Code Lyoko stories! (Hopefully we can pull more out of the woodworks with this one, but we'll see.)
> 
> This is basically a re-write of my story Repair, because halfway through writing the second chapter I got lost and didn't feel like writing it anymore. This story, I have actually already made it five chapters in on, so I assume it will be much more successful, at least just getting it done. I hope that all of you who read that enjoy this story as well.

Odd opened his eyes to Jim lecturing on the proper way to kick a football. He blinked, momentarily disoriented, before the last few memories of the Xana attack flashed before him in quick succession and everything came together. That was weird. Usually, returns were so seamless that it felt more like blinking than actually going back in time.

“Della Robbia, Lovich, you’re up!” Jim called. Odd looked pleadingly back at Ulrich, who did nothing to soothe him. All he did was shrug. _Shrug!_ Odd knew that Ulrich was rude, but he should’ve been a little more understanding when his best friend was supposed to practice football against Adam Lovich. As in, the only football player in the entire existence of Kadic football to get benched for being too aggressive.

Ulrich should’ve mainly been concerned considering the soccer ball-sized bruise Odd had been sporting up until he was virtualized on Lyoko. Even Jeremie and Aelita, who had laughed at him right along with Ulrich the last time they trudged through this day, gave him nervous thumbs up as he walked onto the field. Maybe Ulrich thought that knowing what would happen would help him avoid it, but that was a definite no. Odd could barely remember what had happened, let alone where the ball had come from or even when he had been hit. 

Right on the money, Adam kicked the ball with all of his two-hundred-twenty pounds of solid muscle, and the projectile slammed into Odd’s nose and forehead with a concussive force. He slammed to the ground with a grunt of pain and found himself staring at the sky, wondering if the clouds slowly darkening the once bright blue had been there before. 

“You alright, good buddy?” Ulrich asked, standing directly in front of the clouds Odd had been observing. Still rude. “You got hit _way_ harder than last time.” Odd could see that being true. His head already hurt, and Ulrich looked to have a twin. Oh God, what if there were _two_ of Ulrich to complain about how loud his music was? 

“Is his nose bleeding?” Jeremie loomed over him next, and would you look at that. Two Jeremies. Maybe with two of them, they could figure out the Xana thing and go back to living a life where Odd didn’t have to get back to back concussions. 

Ulrich lifted him up with Aelita’s help, and suddenly Odd’s favorite purple jacket was stained red. “Yikes, sorry. I didn’t know it was that bad. Can you go get something?” Ulrich asked someone behind Odd’s line of sight, and Odd could almost make out Aelita's purple gym uniform as she took off. “Hey, Jim? I think he should probably go to see Yolanda.”

Jim whirled around, looking ready to tear them apart, too, but all it took was one look at Odd’s nose and they were being waved off. “I assume that with your constant trips to the infirmary, you can make it there on your own?”

“Yes, sir,” Ulrich and Jeremie said. Jim took one more look at Odd’s face before turning to continue yelling at Adam. 

Ulrich grabbed Odd from under his armpits and pulled, lifting him to his feet. The world swayed below him, and it was only Ulrich and Jeremie’s battle heightened reflexes that kept him from crashing back to the floor. 

“Woah, don’t fall for me too fast,” Ulrich jested, and if Odd wasn’t sure that he would be drinking blood if he opened his mouth enough to fake gag, he would've. 

“Don’t get too full of yourself,” Odd said, sounding stuffed up. Ulrich chuckled and looked around, trying to catch sight of Aelita. 

When he didn’t see her, he turned back to Odd and said, “In all seriousness, you sound awful.”

“Yeah, well, I’m pretty sure he broke my nose,” Odd grumbled, refusing to feel it himself. Learning to skateboard hadn’t been easy for him; the feeling of a broken nose was ingrained in his memory. 

Aelita returned at that moment with a handful of paper towels. Odd pulled his hand away from his face, and instantly blood was splattering to the now red grass. 

“Gross,” Odd said, taking the tissue gratefully from Aelita. He went to pinch his nose, but the pain was sickening, and he veered forward as his head spun. “Yep, broke my nose.”

Ulrich suddenly looked much less ready to shit out another pun. He grimaced and said, “Just keep the tissue on it.”

Jeremie, Aelita, and Ulrich led him along the far too familiar paths to the infirmary, eerily quiet for how talkative they usually were. It felt like they were on the usual route to the factory, save for the more leisurely pace to accommodate Odd’s lacking sense of balance. 

“You know, breaking your nose isn’t that bad. Maybe it’ll fix that crooked bridge thing you had going on,” Ulrich said, holding the door to the administrative building open so all of them could enter. 

Aelita squawked with an admonishing, _“Ulrich!”_

Odd then shouted, “My nose is _not_ crooked!” 

Jeremie and Ulrich looked at each other before Ulrich said, “It is now, buddy,” 

Odd wanted to make a witty comment back, but the lights were a killer on his eyes, and the tissues covering his nose were about to no longer be a viable option to hold the blood back. Ulrich looked at him for a moment before asking, “Are you okay?”

“Headache,” Odd said. Ulrich pressed his lips tightly together and nodded.

“As bad or worse than last time?” Jeremie asked.

“Way worse,” Odd said.

“Great,” Jeremie rolled his whole head instead of just his eyes. 

By the time they finally made it to the infirmary, blood was dripping in steady streams down Odd’s cheeks. To keep the floor from being stained red, Ulrich had put his hand up to stop the drips. Jeremie knocked somewhat frantically on the door, and Yolanda pulled it open. 

“Alright! Well, first thing’s first, let’s go to the sink,” Yolanda said once she took in the sorry sight. She guided Ulrich and Odd over to the far too white sink. The instant the tissue was pulled from Odd’s nose, all the accumulated blood that hadn’t been soaked up splattered into the sink.

 _“Gross,”_ Odd’s breath hitched. He hated blood, and there was so much of it. 

“Should I get something to wipe his face?” Jeremie asked. Yolanda nodded and pointed to a pack of wet wipes on the counter. 

Once the blood was wiped off and Odd was settled on the bed with cotton taped under his nostrils, Yolanda called Delmas to come and observe the damage himself. She had seemed worried about the possibility of having to send Odd to the hospital, and Odd would’ve been more upset had he not felt so close to throwing up. 

“Ma’am?” Odd whispered, and even though Yolanda was speaking on the phone, she still looked up. “Can you turn the lights off?”

“Of course, Odd,” Yolanda said, shooting up and turning the lights off. To help, she closed the curtains on the large window, leaving the room in almost total darkness save for the desk lamp she switched on to continue writing during her conversation. 

“Better?” Aelita asked, and Odd hummed. It was much better, but even the smallest noises caused a spike of pain. He knew it wasn’t right of him to ask everyone to be totally silent, but he wished someone would pick up on it, so he didn’t have to ask. 

Odd was close to dozing off when he realized that the room had become silent. He shifted, and the sound of the sheets pierced through his skull. It was the loudest noise in the entire room. Even the soft hum of the computer had vanished, and no one seemed to be moving. The door had not opened or closed, and he could still pick up breathing if he tried really hard, but nothing else.

“Odd?” Yolanda’s voice was quiet and far away, still softer than the sound of his own shifting.

“Yes?” Odd whispered back.

“Your dad wants you to go to the hospital to get checked out. He also made an appointment for you to have your nose looked at,” Yolanda said, and Odd would’ve nodded if his head didn’t hurt so bad. 

“Is he mad?” Jeremie whispered, and Yolanda sighed. 

“He’s pretty upset. Delmas will handle it, don’t worry,” Yolanda tried to soothe, but Odd cringed. It wasn’t that his dad was overprotective; it was that his _grandmother_ was overprotective. If she got a hint of Odd getting a concussion and a broken nose from a boy that was known to play aggressively, she’d likely fly from Italy herself just to tear into Jim for allowing it to happen, and that was not an exaggeration. He’d seen it happen with Pauline and a wet staircase, and it was not pretty. 

Just then, Odd could hear the distinct sound of a phone vibrating. Yolanda shuffled, and she hummed in surprise, “It’s your grandma, Odd.”

 _Great._ “Don’t answer it.”

After getting his nose reset by the biggest dick of a doctor Odd had ever met, he was happily laying in bed sulking and ignoring every attempt his friends made to get him to come to dinner with them. He still felt sick and had a raging headache, and he was really looking forward to having total silence for the first time in two days. Ulrich had been so reluctant to leave without him that Yumi had to physically remove him from the room. While Odd appreciated the concern, he appreciated the lack of Ulrich’s presence more. 

He dozed off and woke to pitch blackness and the sound of Ulrich clicking away on his computer. The sound didn’t hurt Odd’s head, which made it much easier to continue feigning sleep. 

“I know you better than that,” Ulrich said, and Odd smiled. Whatever. He was only a _little_ glad Ulrich had come back. 

“Even through all the tape, gauze, and bruises?” Odd asked. 

“You just snore worse now,” Ulrich said, and Odd chuckled. If Odd was terrible at being serious, Ulrich was either right on his level or even worse. Even if they were emotionally constipated and never sorted through issues until both of them were in the midst of a screaming match, at least...well, at least Odd didn’t have to confront anything right this second. 

“I’m pretty sure I bought you twenty dollar earplugs for your birthday. You shouldn’t be able to hear your alarm, let alone my snoring,” Odd said. 

“Yeah, well, I’d like to hear my music.” 

“I can’t imagine the trauma of having trouble hearing your demon screeching,” Odd just barely managed to swat away one of Ulrich’s socks that was aimed in his direction. 

“Just because you broke your face doesn’t mean I won’t chuck things at you for being annoying,” Ulrich sounded more distracted now, but Odd knew it wasn’t an empty threat. Odd would have thrown something back in retaliation, but the only things close enough to grab without moving were his iPad and his phone, neither of which he was willing to sacrifice. 

“I know, you’re mean like that. You didn’t even pretend to feel sorry for me when I went out,” Odd pretended to pout. 

“Well, I thought that since you knew it was coming, you’d, I don’t know, dodge?” Ulrich sounded defensive, which clued Odd into the simmering guilt underneath Ulrich’s words.

“I can’t even remember getting hit; how was I supposed to dodge?” Odd said, rolling over to see if he could see Ulrich through the darkness. He could, and what really stood out the most was the confusion playing out on Ulrich’s face. 

“You can’t?” Ulrich asked, and he sounded worried, which in turn made Odd worry. 

“No? I mean, I can remember Jim telling me to sit out and put some ice on it. Everything between getting onto the field and after the return is a bit foggy,” Odd explained, and Ulrich’s eyebrows somehow got even closer together; any closer and he’d have a unibrow. Odd was about to voice this out loud, but Ulrich actually stood up and came to sit by Odd. 

“You didn’t get hit that hard the last time. You were a bit woozy, but you were coherent. I don’t know why you’d have trouble remembering,” Ulrich said, looking into Odd’s eyes like he could find the answer to this predicament on a body that had never actually gone through the trauma he was looking for. 

“Maybe it was worse than we thought? I mean, half an hour later, we were on Lyoko,” Odd shrugged, turning away before Ulrich could burn a hole through his head. 

“I guess. I think I should tell Jeremie,” Ulrich said, pulling his phone out and instantly lowering the brightness to the lowest setting. It was still far too bright. 

“Great. Now he’s going to run a bunch of stupid tests on me to see if his precious computer is somehow broken,” Odd said, seriously hoping that Jeremie would brush Ulrich off. He did not want to get up. 

“I’m just telling him that all of the damage may not have been fixed. I mean, we can’t fix deaths, right? Maybe there’s a limit on the supercomputer’s ability to revert things back to how they were before. I mean, what if you had a concussion before you even went out on the field, and then you got _another?”_ Ulrich asked, typing even more frantically to Jeremie. Odd just laid his head down and closed his eyes.

“Then I have twice the headache, twice the intolerance to light and sound, and twice the desire to skip class and sleep for the next ten years,” Odd responded, genuinely not worried. It had been two days already. If he was going to die from it, he already would’ve. Instead, he had a bruise that looked like it should’ve been an eye mask and a headache from Hell that wouldn’t go away. It sucked, but he was still alive, so whatever.

Ulrich didn’t tell Odd how the conversation with Jeremie went. He just got up and went back to his own bed without saying a single word, leaving Odd in an anxiety drenched state of wondering whether his foggy memory was actually something he should be concerned about. 

He thought back on the first time he got hit, but it only left him feeling as if something was on the tip of his tongue.

“Odd, if you forget anything else, you’ll tell me?” Ulrich asked. Odd’s head throbbed, and part of him was convinced his inability to recall such useless information was because of that. 

“Yes.”

Maybe he’d remember in the morning.

**Author's Note:**

> https://www.buymeacoffee.com/meltediceangel (helps pay for medical school)
> 
> Oof. Two headcanons that I have that I don't think I've seen anywhere else: Odd hates blood, and his grandma is fiercely over protective and really hates that he lives in France instead of at home in Italy.


End file.
